Fat Thursday: What is it and why should you get involved?

You've probably heard of Pancake Tuesday but what about Fat Thursday?

It's a Christian tradition that's really big in Poland in particular.

It happens every February on the last Thursday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the period of Lent, where many people, particularly Christians, give up som ething they love - like chocolate or sweets - until Easter Sunday.

Because it revolves around eating as many fatty, sugary foods as possible before Lent begins.

Top choice is often Pączek, a large fried doughnut filled with marmalade and glazed with sugar. The number of Pączki (the word for more than one Pączek) that are eaten on this day is so high, it's thought that on Fat Thursday on average each person eats at least three Pączki.

It's believed that if you don't eat at least one Pączek on this day you will have bad luck for the rest of the year.

Another favourite is Faworki, a special pastry in the shape of angel wings then covered with sugar - all in the name of good luck!

Poland isn't the only country celebrating either - Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy and Sweden all have their own Fat Thursday traditions.

Check out these tasty-looking Fat Thursday traditions from around the world.

Here it's known as Weiberfastnacht, or silly Thursday, and is a full-scale carnival celebration with people dressing up and parading through the streets.

Children in the Rhineland even get the day off school, and many adults clock off work at exactly 11:11am to join in.

On every corner you can buy fresh pretzels, hot sausages (bratwurst) or krapfen, German doughnuts.

Look away now vegans, because to the Greeks, Fat Thursday (known as Tsiknopempti) is all about meat!

The holiday is a part of the Greek carnival celebrations and signals the start of the last weekend that Greek Orthodox Church members can eat meat before fasting for Lent.

In the Greek Orthodox tradition, fasting on Wednesday and Friday is important, so Thursday is the best day to go all out on a meat feast.

Everyone rushes to cook their favourite meat dishes which has resulted in the day becoming know by another name: Burnt Thursday.

Fat Thursday is also a meaty affair in Spain. Known as Dijous Gras in Catalonia, it's the time to eat traditional catalan sausages, called botifarra.

It also lies just before the beginning of the carnival period, so many towns and neighbourhoods have public celebrations with dancing and live orchestras.

Lots of fatty foods like, a sweet cake called coca de llardons, and botifarra sausage with egg, are served on the street.

Carnival celebrations in Italy reach their peak on Giovedì Grasso - Fat Thursday - where people celebrate with buffets, dinners, wines and dancing with lots of masked balls.

The fesitval is most popular in Venice, where historically the people and nobles celebrated together by eating pork, dancing, and watching performances and fireworks.

There's also a special event called Flight of the Angel or the Dove (Volo dell'Angelo e della colombina), where a brave person runs down a high wire from the Campanile of San Marco across the square.

Denmark, Norway, and Iceland all celebrate Bolludagur, their equivalent of Fat Thursday, which translates directly to 'bun day'.

But instead of marking it on Thursday, they celebrate on the Sunday and Monday before Lent.

It's all about the sweet cream buns, filled with jam and topped with delicious chocolate.

Every year Icelanders get through more than one million cream buns!

Sounds delicious.